By Ayah Ali-Ahmed, Gavin Hung, Minjae Kang, Jefferson Le, Tina Low, and Sean Yagi

Recently, wildfires have been rapidly spreading throughout the West, most heavily affecting California, Oregon and Washington. These fires are mainly attributed the series of dry lightning storms that have struck throughout the past month, and have noticeably affected the air quality throughout these affected states. California isn't unfamiliar with these wildfires, but with the COVID-19 pandemic ongoing as well, responses to the poor air quality have had to been altered to account for this pandemic's conditions. A major portion of the MVHS student body has had to confront this mix of the wildfires and COVID-19, forced to change their way of quarantine lifestyle, evacuation planning and wildlife involvement.